Holy Cross Parish will take up the National special collection for The Middle East 2014, next weekend, September 20, 21. The funds will be donated directly to and disbursed by Catholic Relief Services. Here is their explantion of how the funds will be used:

These funds will be used by Catholic Relief Services and other Catholic agencies working in partnership with the local Church to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs facing the people in Iraq,Gaza, Syria and surrounding countries where refugees have fled. These organizations have well-established partnerships with the Catholic Church in the region which allow them to respond quickly and efficiently to

victims in some of the hardest to reach areas.

Collection funds will also be used to support Church programs to aid persecuted Christians and to respond to rebuilding needs of Catholic dioceses in the impacted areas.

Parishioners and neighbors alike will see some work being done on the rectory over the next few weeks.

The rectory has obviously been in need of painting for some time. The hope was that siding could be applied and stained to match the new church construction, or that the same vendor supplying the church could extend a good deal for the additional siding.

Far more important than the paint, however, is the condition of the windows. All the framing around the windows is in poor shape, but some has actually rotted leaving the hinges free.

At this time, the parish budget can sustain neither replacing all the windows, nor installing maintenance free siding on the rectory, but something must be done.

Competitive bids have been received for replacement of the seven worst window frames and for scraping and painting the rectory.

No funds will be applied to this work from the capital campaign funds and no work is being done on the interior furnishings or appointments in the rectory. The windows are ordered and will take some time to arrive, but the painting should be completed in a few weeks. It will be nice to see the rectory looking its best again and comforting to realize we have acted as responsible stewards of parish property.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for your selves.

For my yoke is easy

and my burden light."

Christus Consolator, as the image of Christ sculpted by Thorwaldsen has been called, has been reproduced widely. The original stands in a lobby at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, another is in Salt Lake City, Utah.

June 50/50 Raffle total was $ 3,240, the winner receiving one half the total amount.

The winning ticket drawn by our Monday morning Collection Counting Team with Business Manager Roger Trendowski (and Benedict XVI) looking over the entire process. The lucky winner was contacted by phone shortly after the drawing.

July tickets will be on sale after all the masses beginning next week. Proceeds from the raffle support the Religious Programs of the Parish and School.

Thank you to all our volunteers who sold tickets and accounted for the safety of the proceeds!

During
the summer months, many of the immediate needs of the parish diminish as
parishioners vacation and the parish staff transitions to a planning mode.
There are calendar meetings to coordinate events between parish and school,
schedule the use of the gymatorium, etc. The Religious education curriculum is
planned, registration is begun and class assignments are made to have all in
readiness in September.

The following office schedule will be in effect during the summer
months:

Monday – Thursday

Parish offices

9 AM – 4 PM

Front desk for mass cards, sacramental certificates, etc.

9 AM - Noon

Friday

Parish offices

9 AM – Noon

Front desk

9 AM – Noon

Saturday / Sunday

Offices closed except for private appointments

The parish secretary will answer the phone during "front
desk" business hours. At other times during office hours, the parish staff
will assume telephone answering responsibility, since the parish secretary will
be helping in the Office of Religious Education.

Parish staff voice mails and emails are available after hours, as
is an emergency contact number for anointing of the sick.

Parishioners are encouraged to arrange visits to the parish office
for mass cards, sacramental certificates, etc. in the morning hours when the
front desk will be staffed.

We can always modify this schedule to address unforeseen
circumstances, but this is an attempt to preserve the availability of the
pastor and parish staff while controlling costs. Hopefully, we have struck a
good balance.

This year more than ever, Holy Cross will depend on the consistent generosity of our parishioners to sustain us over the summer months.

If your summer plans take you away from Holy Cross for all or part of the summer months, consider enrolling in our online giving program. Not only does it free you from remembering to write a check, but it helps us with a consistent and predictable offertory collection despite the weather or holiday schedule.

It's simple to enroll and to select donation options or to discontinue electronic giving for any reason.

Holy Cross will be holding a monthly 50-50 raffle for each of the months of June, July and August. Tickets are $ 20 each. The drawing will be held each month under the supervision of the Collection Counting Team. You need not be present to win.

Tickets will be on sale after all the masses and in the parish office. Proceeds support the religious programs in our parish and school.

Nearly every family eligible to vote has expressed a preference and it's time to get down to planning. The parish staff is looking at suitable dates in January and realizing that it is important to get the dates to everyone as soon as possible, we will inform First Communicant families within a few days.

Thank you for your warm response to the Bishop O'Connell's appeal to us through the video shown at all the masses today. In case you missed the message you can click here, or watch on the Bishop's Annual Appeal website.

Along with all other parishes in the diocese, Holy Cross is appealing to parishioners to assess their level of weekly giving to the church and to increase it if possible.

Every registered parishioner and family should have received a letter from Fr. Manning asking for a commitment to weekly giving and its increase, even in these challenging economic times. No one is being asked to give money they don’t have, but everyone is being asked to assess their spending pattern

If you have not received a letter, it means you are not on our parish mailing list. Stop by the parish office to pick up a registration form, or take a packet from the back of the church (which as you may know, is open 24 hours daily, 7 days per week.)

Thank you for your past support and future generosity as we plan the future of Holy Cross parish!

Holy Cross along with all parishes across the diocese is preparing to conduct an increased offertory program this coming Fall. Many parishes are struggling to maintain fiscal health in these trying economic times, and rather than emphasizing giving once to a specific fund, this program will emphasize the importance of weekly generosity to the parish church -more emphasis on stewardship and less on fund drives.

Sensitive to the criticism that the church is "always asking for money," we have seriously tried to limit the number of times we ask at church, directly or indirectly, inside the church and outside. Several of the requests come from outside the parish: the Bishop's Annual Appeal, the annual appeal from a visiting missionary and many of the routine non-diocesan collection envelopes and appeals included in the parish mailings. In past years, I have made an appeal for generosity at Christmas at some or all of the masses and with a special mailing and we try to provide the right amount of financial information in the bulletin on a weekly basis. I think that the number of fund raising requests from our school need study, from the big ones by the parish to many smaller ones by classes and drives for various causes.

The cost of the increased offertory campaign is being paid by the diocese and will be conducted by a firm called "Letter Concepts" with main office in Berlin, CT.

Thanks to so many who contributed generously to Holy Cross at Easter, and to those who, with great difficulty are honoring pledges to the Lift High the Cross campaign. The good news of their generosity will soon appear on the Memorial Wall and be announced in the bulletin. For your dedication and honor to your pledge, the parish is truly grateful.

However, as many of you may have realized, the weekend scheduled for the Bishop's Annual Appeal In-Pew appeal was a weather disaster, and even though our appeal weekend was scheduled for a week later, the weather effects were still obvious. Our appeal response is significantly below the last two years.This week shows our total parish pledge at approx. $26,000 which is 26% of our total requested goal.

In fact, contributions to the Church were substantially down for at least three weeks, beginning the weekend of the storm.

Due to the storm, I must report that even the Pancake Breakfast, though it was a social success, barely broke even financially. Only with the donation of all three 50/50 raffle winners' proceeds back to the church did it realize a profit of $500. While the primary goal of this day was building community, the Men's Group also use the proceeds to help fund our bus to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. and the purchase of other materials for those children and young adults who attend the March.

Happily, it appears that Easter contributions were back on track to at least match last year's, though this depends on our receiving the usual number of Easter contributions in the mail within the next few weeks.

The Diocese is a different matter, however, and they have asked parishes who have not acheived 85% of their goal to repeat an in-pew reminder weekend (without the Bishop's video) on April 24 - 25th. Please be generous and make a contribution once again this year, or consider a new contribution if you have never made one before, so that Holy Cross can do its part to sustain the Church of the Diocese of Trenton of which we are an important part. Please be patient with this effort if you have already made a donation and realize we take part in this effort to be faithful to the local diocesan church from which our identity flows.